Making as worlding: young children composing change through speculative design

Wargo, Jon M.; Alvarado, Jasmine

doi:10.1111/lit.12209

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the second and third steps, children were told that their designs and models need not be practical. This is a speculative design concept which makes design a cognitive rather than a practical application (Dunne and Raby, 2013; Wargo and Alvarado, 2020). Speculative design was seen as particularly important for this project because the focus was on children’s intentions and ideas rather than their skills to make working applications.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evading Big Brother: Using visual methods to understand children’s perception of sensors and interest in subverting digital surveillance

Main

Yamada‐Rice²

2022

Visual Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In relation to this Special Issue’s focus on ugly information, this article examines children’s perception of the often invisible interactions they have with sensor-enabled digital devices and, when prompted, their interest in subverting or blocking these sensors to evade surveillance. The authors report on a study of 12 children, aged 8–12 years, that investigated their knowledge of the sensing abilities of commonly used digital devices (smart phones, smart watches, smart speakers and games consoles), and their attitudes towards having active agency over sensors. In line with this journal’s readership, visual methods used for data collection and analysis are described. Specifically, within semi-structured focus groups, drawing was used to understand what children thought was inside digital devices and the extent of their awareness of digital sensors. Child participants were invited to model speculative tools for deceiving digital sensors in order to explore their interest in having agency over digital surveillance. Data in the form of drawings, photographs of models and video recordings were analysed using experimental visual methods that included 3D rendering and comics, as well as visual content and thematic analysis. These drew out four key themes: (1) the role of inference in sensor awareness; (2) misunderstanding of device components and sensing capabilities; (3) attitudes to surveillance; and (4) children’s interest in subverting rather than blocking sensors. We discuss how technology companies’ desire to create ‘magical experiences’ may contribute to incorrect inferences about information gathering systems, how this reduces children’s agency over the information they share and how it puts them at greater risk from digital surveillance. The article makes an original contribution to knowledge in this area by calling for a two-pronged approach from technology companies and educators to address these issues by making sensor presence more visible, educating children about the full extent of sensor capability and bringing critical discussion of them into curricula.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As will be described in the methodology section, cultural probes are physical provocations used to bring participants into design research (Gaver et al, 1999; Wyeth and Diercke, 2006). Speculative design is the process of producing designs that do not need to work practically (Dunne and Raby, 2013; Wargo and Alvarado, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evading Big Brother: Using visual methods to understand children’s perception of sensors and interest in subverting digital surveillance

Main

Yamada‐Rice²

2022

Visual Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Further, speculative design for children has been discussed [35,64], fnding -as we do -that speculative design, along with design fction, experiential futures, and other similar design approaches, ofers opportunities to even very young children to engage in some form of critical and speculative thinking. Although she does not explicitly endorse speculative fabulations for children, Haraway [28] discusses worlds flled with creatures that help inquire into inter-species care, parenting, and queerness.…”

Section: Speculative Design For Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing Up in a Complex World

Culén

Coughlin²

2022

Designing Interactive Systems Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The interaction design community has a long history of design and research for and with children, including designing installations for public spaces. This paper explores children's engagement in socio-cultural issues through speculative installations exhibited in a cultural institution. Over the past ten years, we explored the boundaries between technology, play, learning, and mastery through more than forty interaction design student projects collaborating with various cultural institutions. Although only a portion of projects focused on time-relevant socio-cultural issues such as pollution, refugee crises, or climate change, they opened for refections on possible ways of including children in dialogues concerning contemporary challenges. The paper contributes a framework for designing and analyzing speculative installations for children based on the 'darkness scale' (refecting the seriousness and complexity of the context), scafolding engagement, age-appropriate speculative pointers, and linking the present with a desirable future. We showcase two installations and use the framework to discuss them. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); HCI theory, concepts and models.

show abstract

“…However, the school population that took part in this project was formed by senior students and their educators. As claimed by Wargo and Alvarado (2019), the equity-oriented advances are not covering the presence of making in early childhood settings, due to the limited number of opportunities to choose between analog and digital materials in many of their educational spaces and the predominant focus on doing and less on thinking and reflection. Therefore, the present contribution fits well into the makerspace-for-equity debate by offering a unique insight into a public primary school program, from planning to outcomes.…”

Section: Theoretical Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning inclusion through makerspace: a curriculum approach in Italy to share powerful ideas in a meaningful context

Giusti¹,

Bombieri²

2020

IJILT

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeLearning by making is being recognized as an efficient technique for students to develop knowledge and skills simultaneously. However, one of the most urgent challenges that schools are facing nowadays is to reach every student in their individual profile and potential. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to offer an integrated approach for re-thinking the role of Makerspace in a context of inclusion: the characteristics of this learning strategy, in contrast to the traditional currents, can offer promising paths to successfully build shared ideas.Design/methodology/approachThis paper critically analyses a Makerspace workshop implemented during a whole academic year in an Italian state primary school. This exploratory and instrumental qualitative approach (Baxter and Jack, 2008) included two channels that have been developed simultaneously, namely, technological skills and social competences.FindingsStemming from a long tradition of inclusion of children with various educational needs in the mainstream school system, the authors aim to share a success story of academic and social achievements: all the participants were able to develop at their own pace, sharing tools, reaching a balance between the demands of the task and their planning and negotiation skills.Research limitations/implicationsSmall group size and the reiterated daily interactions with differences embodied in students with special needs, immigration background, low SES, gifted.Practical implicationsThrough ad-hoc training, relatively marginalized pedagogical components (such as the ability to work in low-control situations, flexibility, student-centered learning environments) should be given a more prominent role and can be introduced in the desirable professional development. In addition, national and school policies are prompted to consider its inclusion as a slow-process that cannot be fully achieved in the presence of time and space constraints.Social implicationsThe curricular approach discussed above has shown the importance of inclusion of all students within mainstream schools. Pupils with atypical development can interact with other children, and in this way, they can have first-hand experience of how social dynamics unfold in a real environment. Moreover, they can act in a challenging context where, more often than not, they are pushed to achieve goals exceeding their supposed cognitive abilities. The other pupils are also gaining from these interactions: they can understand different points of view, thus developing empathy, and they can appreciate original ways to approach a task, with cognitive and emotional benefits. In addition, the constant relationship helps them to control their reactions to behavioral problems that sometimes classmates with special needs display and so they deepen their knowledge of and tolerance for others’ peculiarities.Originality/valueBased on the foundational principles of Papert’s powerful ideas and meaningful context, this paper describes the design principles of a successful makerspace, its integration in the school curriculum, and the achieved inclusion of children with Special Education Needs in a group of peers where adults became observers. Recommendations are discussed on how school practitioners can promote young children’s learning through making.

show abstract

Making as worlding: young children composing change through speculative design

Cited by 19 publications

References 13 publications

Evading Big Brother: Using visual methods to understand children’s perception of sensors and interest in subverting digital surveillance

Evading Big Brother: Using visual methods to understand children’s perception of sensors and interest in subverting digital surveillance

Growing Up in a Complex World

Learning inclusion through makerspace: a curriculum approach in Italy to share powerful ideas in a meaningful context

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About